Saturday, May 14, 2011

Digital Art

In a previous post, I had wondered about my desire (ability) to ink in all of my illustrations by hand. It's permanent and I could seriously mess up an otherwise lovely image with one bad move. So, for a graduation gift John got me a Bamboo pen and tablet. It is the coolest thing ever. I get to use a pen instead of a mouse to draw on the computer, so I can have all the effects of a hand drawing without the permanence of ink. Here's some examples of what I've done with it so far:

Before

After

Before

After

Pretty cool, right? (As always, you can click on the image for a larger view) You can check out the
Bamboo for yourself if you want to. As predicted, I needed a lot of "oops" room, especially on the Eiffel Tower. I wasn't quite sure what to do in a few spots, so I did and redid (and redid) a few different attempts. Had it been a real pen and not my digital one I would have been stuck with the first, unfortunate attempt.

The Bamboo does take a bit of getting used to, though. One thing that is especially hard for my brain to communicate to my hand is that the tablet writing space is basically a shrunken computer screen. So in order to draw, I either have to draw much small than I think I should or I have to enlarge the image I'm drawing over. But with practice, it has gotten a lot easier!

WHAT I'M READING

I started this blog as a way for friends and family to keep in touch while I traveled abroad. Now, I hope it gives you ideas to try for crafts, food, home, and garden. I love to dabble, and I try not to buy when I can DIY!